Background
George Thomas Simon was born on May 9, 1912, in New York City, New York, United States.
George Thomas Simon was born on May 9, 1912, in New York City, New York, United States.
George T. Simon received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1934.
In 1935, Simon became an associate editor for the music magazine Metronome. He became editor-in-chief of Metronome from 1939 to 1955.
His job with Metronome put him in touch with several musicians, including Glenn Miller, then playing trombone for Ray Noble. Simon helped organize the personnel of the original Miller band, and played drums on their first recording.
During the second world war, he once more helped to organize, and occasionally drummed in, early versions of Miller's army air force band. He was eventually put in charge of V Discs, 12-inch vinyl 78rpm records sent to the troops - and, not surprisingly, recorded many stars of the swing era.
The postwar shift to small, bebop-influenced groups was not entirely to Simon's tastes. He worked mainly in and around the record industry, though he had spells covering jazz for the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Post.
In between writing books, he produced albums for different companies, and acted as a consultant on TV programs, including the acclaimed Timex jazz series. For several years, he was an executive director of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which runs the Grammy awards.
George Simon is known as one of the pioneer jazz critics. He stood out as champion of the decade or so during which large jazz and dance orchestras, and their singers, were accorded the kind of coverage now devoted to rappers and rockers.
Instead of attempting to keep pace with every musical development, Simon's books reflect his unique and invaluable role as eyewitness to, and chronicler of, the 1935-45 decade. He won an ASCAP award for The Big Bands and, some years later, won a Grammy award himself for his sleeve note to a Bing Crosby album, written at Crosby's request.
(Moonlight Serenade, Sunrise Serenade, Little Brown Jug, I...)
1974Simon described himself as the lowbrow member of an upper-middle-class Jewish family.
Simon was married, had two children and three grandchildren.
March 6, 1899 – July 29, 1960
Richard Leo Simon was an American book publisher. He was a Columbia University graduate, co-founder of the publishing house Simon & Schuster, and father of world-famous singer-songwriter Carly Simon.
Born on June 25, 1945
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and author.
March 1, 1904 – disappeared December 15, 1944
Alton Glenn Miller was an American big-band trombonist, arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era.
